Barton Talks About New Book, "Pray the Gay Away"

For those of us living in Kentucky and Tennessee, “the Bible Belt” is a familiar phrase. It’s shorthand for a conservative Christian culture extending across the South, and tied closely to family values and personal beliefs. For some southerners, the culture they call home is a culture that denies them. Morehead State University women’s studies professor Dr. Bernadette Barton is the author of Pray the Gay Away, the Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays.

Barton interviewed 59 lesbians and gay men about their experiences for the book, which tells some familiar and some surprising stories of life in the Bible Belt. Angela Hatton talks with Barton.

Barton is on campus at Murray State University Thursday, Nov. 1. She speaks at 7 p.m. at Mason Hall Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

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